It's Back Ch5: Exploring
Third Person's P.O.V.
Hiccup woke up with Astrid wrapped in his arms and Toothless curled up around them. Astrid's hair was down and wavy and smelled of roses. Hiccup ran his fingers through it and smiled. He was surprised her hair was down seeing as she never wore it down. He also noticed she was wearing a new outfit. The blonde stirred and blue eyes opened.
"Good morning milady," Hiccup whispered in her ear and Astrid yawned.
"Morning," Astrid said, "How are you feeling?"
"Much better," Hiccup said, "How're you feeling bud?"
Toothless lifted his head and licked the side of Hiccup and Astrid's faces, which caused the two to groan, and Toothless laughed.
"I take it he's feeling better," Astrid said and wiped the dragon slobber off her cheek.
"And I think he's hungry," Hiccup laughed as the Night Fury gave him puppy dog eyes to show his hunger, "Let's go."
They walked out of the building and towards the main building where the Elves and Valka were eating breakfast. Arvellas got them some food and Toothless some fish and they ate happily, chatting with some of the Elves and Valka.
"Beren thought it would be a good idea to explore the rest of Lainos for any other dangers," Valka said, "I thought you would like to come and have a look around. You may be staying here a while."
"That sounds fun," Hiccup turned to Astrid, "What do you think?"
"I've been wanting to look around," Astrid smiled, "And Toothless would like to stretch his legs."
Toothless looked up from his plate of fish at the mention of his name and they laughed at the mouthful of fish he had. Haleth and Muin came up, each with a fish. This caught Toothless's attention and he stared at them with large, pleading eyes. They happily gave him the fish and petted him while he ate them. Muin climbed onto his back and scratched behind his ears. Toothless purred and laid down. Haleth and Muin scratched his scaly belly, causing his tongue to flop out of his mouth.
"Toothless sure is enjoying the attention," Hiccup watched as Toothless fell asleep from the belly rub.
Breakfast was over and they followed Beren, Aran, Arvellas, and Cuin further into Lainos. It was mainly forest area with small clearings here and there. Many creatures filled the forest; deer, unicorns, pegasi, faeries, and many more.
"What's that?" Hiccup asked.
Ruins of what looked to be an old castle stood in a sunny clearing, covered with vines of ivy and morning glories. They looked like they would fall over with one small touch.
"Ruins of an old Elfish castle. There are lots of ruins in this forest," Beren explained, "They were here long before we came to Lainos but there is very little history we could find on them."
"Interesting," Hiccup said.
They continued on the trail and saw more ruins, some in better conditions than others. Rainbow colored fish swam along a stream and danced in their own special way. Faeries tried to put flowers in Hiccup's and Astrid's hair again and Astrid glared at any that got close to her but quit trying to stop them.
"They are welcoming you to Lainos," Arvellas said and smiled at a little faerie that landed on her shoulder, "They love newcomers."
"They also seem to love putting flowers in people's hair," Astrid said.
"It's just what they do," Hiccup said, "They enjoy it."
Two faeries reached into Hiccup's vest and pulled out his leather book and flew off.
"Hey!" Hiccup ran after them.
The little winged people were fast, that's for sure, but Hiccup managed to keep up. He was right on their tails when he jumped and grabbed hold of the book. There was that moment of success but that disappeared when Hiccup felt himself falling.
"Hiccup!" Astrid screamed and Toothless roared.
All Hiccup saw was a muddy ground zooming towards him and then complete blackness. He felt scales, warmth, and a strong beating heart against his back. Impact came and jolted him and he had a sense of tumbling but it stopped. A coo came from above and sunlight met Hiccup's face, blinding him for a second.
"Thanks bud," Hiccup rubbed the dragon's head, "Are you hurt?"
The ebony dragon shook his head and he shook his body.
"Hiccup? Toothless? Are you guys alright?" Astrid called.
"We're fine!" Hiccup yelled back.
"We will get you out!" Beren told them, "Stay where you are!"
"Alright!"
And then they were gone. Hiccup took in his new surroundings. There was a small lake with a waterfall flowing over the edge. The cliff almost circled the entire area and trees grew here and there.
"Oh those stupid faeries," Hiccup grumbled, "Wait, where's my book?"
They searched the muddy ground and found it among some bushes. It wasn't damaged but had a little mud and faerie dust on the cover. Hiccup wiped it away and stuffed it back in his vest pocket. He was going to have to be more careful with those faeries. Toothless growled and Hiccup followed his line of sight. A stag with a beautiful light brown coat and large horns stood by a clump of bushes near the edge of the cliff circle. It was staring right at Hiccup with large brown eyes. Hiccup looked him right in the eyes and felt a pull from it. A voice in the back of his mind told him to look away but he couldn't. One step after the other and Hiccup was heading right for the stag. Toothless stood in front of him and cooed, trying to draw his attention away from the mysterious animal that seemed to call to him. Toothless roared and shoved Hiccup back, taking a glance at the stag. It looked at the dragon now and seemed to be calling him. The Night Fury shook his head to shake off the control but it wouldn't go away, like it had buried itself within his mind. Toothless followed Hiccup as they followed the stag away from the lake and deeper into the forest.
Astrid followed the Elves towards the path that led towards the lake Hiccup and Toothless were waiting at. The flowers that were in her hair were now gone, strewn about on the forest floor.
"Why would those faeries do that?" Aran asked, "For as long as I can remember, no faerie has ever done that."
"They were not acting as themselves," Beren said.
"You mean they were possessed?" Cuin asked.
"Maybe. Faeries may be mischievous but they would not pull a prank that would put a life at risk."
Arvellas yelled and fell to the ground, grasping both sides of her head.
"Arvellas!" Aran exclaimed and kneeled next to her, "What is it?"
"Dark, evil serpent," the she Elf gasped out, "wanting Hiccup and Toothless. Must get to old temple."
She screamed out in pain and collapsed to the ground.
"She fainted," Aran scooped her up into his arms and Alonnen landed on Beren's shoulder, cawing and flapping his wings.
"Follow Alonnen," Beren ordered, "I have a feeling Hiccup and Toothless are not at the lake anymore."
They followed the stag for a while, a little voice in the back of their minds saying to fight the control but it was snuffed out like a candle in a strong wind. The forest seemed to get darker and there were less creatures happily going about. Creatures stared out of the shadows and wanted to eat the easy prey in front of them except they found they couldn't. A dark force surrounded them, scaring off even some of the scariest creatures away in search of another meal. A small stone building covered in moss, vines, and shadows appeared in the gloom and the stag led them inside. Cobwebs and dirt covered every inch of the walls and floors with a thick coating and the smell of rotting flesh became really strong. They walked into a chamber where something dark, long, and scaly sat curled up in a ball. The stag disappeared like mist but the control remained over the two. The thing heaved itself up and out of its curled up position and moved around Hiccup and Toothless.
"Such wonderful prey," Hiccup and Toothless heard in their minds, "The human is strong willed and loyal with a large heart while the Night Fury is similar except he is not as accepting. You two are outcasted by the humans because you are different."
The serpent moved closer to Hiccup so Hiccup could smell its breathe.
"You have done no good, burdening the Elves with your trouble. Oh Hiccup, you will always mess things up. Like with your father. You have disappointed him since the day you were born. You are a weakling, a screw up, a useless. You are not a Viking. You don't deserve to be with Astrid, you don't deserve to have friends, you don't deserve to be a Viking, not the future chief."
Fear pricked Hiccup's heart as he listened to the serpent talk. It was all true. 'It's what's inside that he can't stand', 'Stop trying so hard to be something you're not', 'Stop being all of you', 'Hiccup the Useless', 'You're not a Viking, you're not my son'. Tears rolled down his cheeks as old memories resurfaced and realization kicked in as he collapsed to his knees.
"All alone are we Night Fury? You can't be friends with a human. You deserve to be all alone, to die all alone! Your kind is meant to die! Don't you see? You only bring danger to the human boy. In fact, if you two had never become friends, Dagur wouldn't be after your precious boy. He would be safe and sound back on Berk, learning how to become the future chief of Berk. All you do is endanger other creatures. Your kind is dead because of you!"
Toothless let out a broken roar and collapsed to the floor. Hiccup looked down at the dragon but couldn't move, couldn't comfort him, only watch as his dragon, his friend laid there crying out.
"See Hiccup? You only bring trouble to others. Your Night Fury is broken because you brought him to this cursed island! It's all your fault!"
"Don't you see Night Fury? You've hurt the boy. It's all your fault!"
"Stop it!" Hiccup screamed and curled up into a ball on the floor.
"Your fault."
"Hiccup!"
The group came running through the entrance and the control weakened on the two who had fallen victim. Cuin pulled out her bow and shot at the serpent's face, landing a hit in one of its eyes. He roared in pain and swept at her with his tail. She dodged and Beren ran towards him. He dug his sword deep in the side of his neck. Blood as black as night flowed out and onto the floor. The serpent reeled back and lashed out at the king. He dodged and aimed elsewhere.
"Hiccup, wake up," Astrid shook Hiccup's shoulders, "Please, we need to get you two out of here."
Hiccup slowly began to escape the control and shook his head.
"Toothless, how's Toothless?" he asked, trying to pull himself to his feet but he felt completely drained.
Toothless cooed and managed to stand and collapse next to Hiccup.
"C'mon, we need to get you guys out of here," Astrid heaved Hiccup to his feet and put his arm over her shoulders, "Aran, I can't get them out of here by myself and Cuin and Beren are busy!"
"We'll get Toothless," Aran said with Arvellas following.
"Can you manage?"
Arvellas nodded and they lifted Toothless up from the floor and towards the exit. Hiccup looked back towards the fight and saw the serpent about to strike Cuin.
"No!"
With renewed strength, he ran as fast as he could towards Cuin and shoved her out of the way, taking the blow. He felt the fangs graze his flesh and the poison sink into his veins as he collapsed to the ground. His senses dulled and he could barely tell Astrid was there yelling at him to stay awake. He could barely feel someone picking him up or the giant thud as something large fell to the ground. And then everything went dark.
Stoick walked into the cave with the rest of the teens and sat down in the middle and petted Thornado's head.
"What are you doing?" Snotlout asked.
"Now is the time we wait."
"Boring!" Ruffnut exclaimed and bonked heads with Tuffnut, "When do we get to set stuff on fire?"
"Excuse me Mr. Haddock but what are we waiting for exactly?" Fishlegs asked.
"I have some old friends that will meet us here and will help us," Stoick explained, "Just keep quiet. Dagur probably has scouts all over the island right now."
The crew could tell Dagur was getting angry. He had killed three more men when they came back and said they had found no trace of his escaped prisoners. One was drowned, one had his eyes gouged out slowly and a dull knife was used to tear his flesh apart, and the third, well, none of the crew could keep watching because his death was so gruesome. If they didn't find the prisoners soon, the whole crew would be dead before they returned.